Seasonal

Congratulations this month go to Eve from Lowertown in Schull, Co.Cork. We love how she deals with the slug problem in a very organic and beneficial way and that her garden is a place for relaxing in whilst also providing food for her large family. Well done Eve, hope you enjoy spending your €50 voucher here at Fruit Hill Farm and that it helps with your future plans for your garden!
If you'd like to win a €50 voucher for Fruit Hill Farm and have your garden featured in the How Does Your Garden Grow section of our website CLICK HERE for full details on how to

Easy to grow and producing a rewarding crop, courgettes are a popular vegetable to grow. Sow indoors from April in medium sized pots at a minimum temperature 20c. Harden the plants off slowly and plant outside after last frost at a spacing of 30cm x 30cm. Courgettes like a sunny spot and rich soil so incorporate some compost or well rotted manure into the soil before planting. Alternatively, you can use a NPK fertilizer such as Greenvale.
Keep the soil constantly moist by watering around the plants, not over them. They need plenty of water, so sink a 15cm pot

The first fruit to ripen in summer - and the most popular - strawberries are everyone’s favourite. Strawberries are a member of the rose family and aren't really a fruit or a berry but the enlarged receptacle of the flower. First cultivated in ancient Rome, strawberries are now the most popular berry fruit in the world.
Planting Strawberries
Strawberries are best planted in the spring or autumn. They prefer a sunny and sheltered position in fertile, free-draining soil. Improve your soil with lots of organic matter such as compost or well-rotted manure prior to

We all absolutely loved Aileen from Antrim's entry for this months How Does your Garden Grow feature - not only is it lovely to see the change and growth in her garden over time, but we all loved her inventive way of trying to keep the rabbits away!! Congratulations Aileen - we hope you enjoy spending your €50 voucher for Fruit Hill Farm and we hope your garden continues to grow and flourish!
If you'd like to win a €50 voucher for Fruit Hill Farm and have your garden featured in the How Does Your Garden Grow section of our website CLICK HERE for full details on

Muriel from Greystones in Co.Wicklow is this months featured garden. It's great to see such a variety of plants and produce growing in a small garden and it's obvious that Muriel and her family get great use and enjoyment from their garden. We hope you enjoy spending your €50 voucher for Fruit Hill Farm and that your potatoes produce a good yield!
My name is Muriel, I live in Greystones. I have a fairly small garden with one single raised bed, it is south facing but overshadowed by a high wall. Despite the lack of ideal conditions, I still manage to grow a fair

Ravishing radishes; quick and easy to grow they are often the first spring crop. With their delicious crunchy texture and peppery taste they are real delight after the dull months of winter.
How to grow tasty radishes
Sow indoors from late winter or sow directly from late spring through to early autumn.
Radishes can be planted from as early as the soil can be worked. Make successive plantings of short rows every 10 to 14 days. Plant in spaces between slow-maturing vegetables (such as broccoli and brussel sprouts) or in areas that will be used later for warm-season

Purple Sprouting Broccoli - a great vegetable to grow in your garden. Has a long harvest seson from February to April - the lean time when there is little fresh produce.
How to Grow and Harvest Purple Sprouting Broccoli (PSB)
Sow seeds in small pots or a nursery tray. Can aslo be sown outside in a seed bed.
Once the seedlings are large enough, you can transplant them to individual pots and water well.
Prepare the soil for planting by using a fork to loosen and turn the soil. Remove any large stones and weeds. PSB (like most of the brassica family) like firm

Deirdre from Doonbeg in West Clare is our featured garden for April
Congratulations Deirdre and thanks for sharing the story of your garden with us - and such lovely pictures! It sounds like you have put a lot of work into your garden and are now reaping the benefits of all that hard work. we hope you enjoy spending your €50 voucher for Fruit Hill Farm!
"I moved to Doonbeg, West Clare, 10 years ago. The L-shaped field was as wild as the wind coming off the Atlantic! First it had to be scraped to remove the scutch grass, dock, rocks and the forgotten and

It’s easy to forget here in spacious West Cork that not everybody has the luxury of a big garden to grow vegetables in. Square foot gardening is a method for helping those with smaller gardens to maximise their space. In square foot gardening, the growing area (typically a raised bed) is marked out into smaller square sections. This helps to plan and create a well planted and neat vegetable garden in minimal space.
Generally, a bed is divided into a grid of 12” sided squares. So for example a 3’ by 3’ raised bed could be divided into 9 squares and a 3’ by

What's not to like about nettles!
Urtica dioica - the humble stinging nettle is a wonder plant and every garden should have a patch.
Nettles in the garden
Stinging nettles support more than 40 kinds of insects, for whom the sting can form a protective shield against grazing animals.
Many nettle patches hold overwintering insects which swarm around fresh spring nettles and provide early food for ladybirds. These same aphids are eaten by blue tits and other woodland birds that dart around the stems. Nettles are the number one destination for ladybirds with eggs to

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